After "Chrome"... a fake version of "WhatsApp" garners half a million downloads on "Google Play"

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Counterfeit apps are becoming an increasing problem on the Google Play Store.

In recent days, a fake application was found that mimics the Google Chrome browser, and it received more than 100,000 downloads before it was removed from the store.

Now, a fraudulent version of the WhatsApp messaging application has been found, which as of Friday evening was still available on the Android App Store, according to a report by the Android Authority website, which specializes in technology news, which Al Arabiya Business viewed.

According to a user on Reddit, an app that mimics WhatsApp appears among the sponsored (advertising) results when searching for the original app. According to Google Play Store data, this fake version has been downloaded half a million times.

This scam app was published under the developer name "Agment Assets sallu", and is the only app currently available through this account. The fake app page exactly matches the original; It uses screenshots and descriptive texts taken from the official WhatsApp page.

Store data indicates that this application was published last month, and has since succeeded in achieving more than 500,000 downloads. This is a huge number for a fake application, although it is still very far from the number of original WhatsApp downloads, which exceeded 10 billion.

Although the fake app appears to appear as an ad to some users when searching in the store, it is important to note that this does not happen to everyone. When searching for “WhatsApp” on the Google Play Store via phone or web, the first result was the official application.

The fake WhatsApp application appears to be taking advantage of Google Play's early access program. As cybersecurity firm BitDefender recently explained, the Early Access program disables public user reviews of participating apps, which can make it difficult for users to distinguish between a fake app page and a genuine one.

However, it remains disturbing how this application managed to evade Google Play's security systems for more than a month.